Chapter Six
Erin
After brunch, we all go outside to settle on the patio.
It’s a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for relaxing and enjoying the weather.
I am sitting with Lily in the outdoor lounge, sipping cucumber and sage water as we catch up on our lives.
Chiara and Lucas are sitting by the swimming pool, dangling their feet in the water and talking quietly, their heads bent together.
Chiara looks radiant, her blonde hair swaying gently in the breeze, and Lucas looks like he is eating her up with his eyes. Huh, something’s definitely up.
My gaze drifts to the Adirondack chairs on the other side of the coffee table where Matteo and Damiano sit, deep in quiet conversation.
Judging by their grim expressions, it must be something work -related.
Both have shed their suit jackets, but it is Matteo who steals my attention.
His white dress shirtsleeves are rolled up to his elbows, exposing bronzed forearms that look like they were carved to torment me.
Thick cords of muscle shift beneath his skin when he gestures, veins prominent and roped under a swirl of dark ink creeping up from under the fabric.
And I know for a fact that the rest of his body is inked as well and that his muscled chest is a work of art, carved from power and control.
I can’t tear my eyes away, and my throat dries up like I’ve swallowed sand.
It’s only forearms, I tell myself. But to no avail, because my lady parts don’t think they are only forearms. How someone who wears a shirt and suit jacket twenty-four-seven can get this tan is beyond me.
I rip my eyes away from him to look back at Lily, only to catch her watching me with a knowing look and a small, amused smile tugging at her lips.
“What?” I ask, way too defensively.
Her smirk widens. “You just looked like a cat spotting a bowl of cream.”
“I did not!” I protest, shaking my head like that might erase the evidence. But then a few low words float over from the nearby chairs.
“…a dogfighting ring?” Damiano says in a clipped tone.
I freeze, straining my ears.
Matteo nods once. “Yeah.”
“That doesn’t sound like his M.O. I thought the guy stuck to human exploitation?”
“Until now. But believe me, it’s him. It’s exactly the way he operates, the information sent to authorities, the careful way he erased his traces. I’d recognize his signature anywhere. It was the same guy who tried to breach our network and who takes down trafficking rings, the Ghost.”
I feel all the blood drain from my face. Lily covertly nudges my foot from under the sofa and it snaps my attention back to her. I see that she heard that too, and we both lock eyes, pretending to be engrossed in a conversation while our ears are strained on their discussion.
“So, you haven’t found him yet?” Damiano goes on.
My stomach flips and my heart leaps up my throat. What does he mean? Why are they looking for me? Because it’s my covert activity they are discussing, no mistake there.
Matteo exhales slowly, frustration radiating off him. “Not yet, but I will. The guy is a ghost. But even ghosts leave trails, and I will find him.”
Damiano lets out a humorless chuckle. “Sounds like it’s getting personal.”
“It is.” Matteo’s voice is low and clipped. “I’ve tried everything, tracking his connection through data packets, setting digital traps, even offering fake job gigs on the darknet to lure him out. Nothing worked. The bastard didn’t bite once.”
Damiano raises a brow. “So he’s disciplined.”
“He’s good,” Matteo concedes, jaw tight. “But not perfect. Everyone leaves a fingerprint. Yet I don’t get him. He’s not doing it for money or power, he doesn’t sell the data to the highest bidder. He merely…takes the rings down, then vanishes.”
Lily nudges me again and subtly motions toward the double doors. We stand up, pretending to go refill our glasses, and slip into the kitchen.
Once we’re alone, she turns to me and asks in a hushed voice, “What was that talk about a dogfighting ring? That was you, right?”
I let out a slow breath and nod. “On Tuesday, someone brought in a dog in really bad shape. Mira asked me if she should report it. She suspected abuse. I told her I’d take care of it, so I did.
Turns out it was a dogfighting ring.” I give her a sheepish smile.
She shakes her head, but I catch the flicker of approval in her eyes.
“I can’t blame you. If I’d been there, I would’ve gone straight to Dark.
” Her voice softens. “But, Erin…be careful. You don’t live here, so you might not understand how much power these men hold.
Damiano, Lucas and Matteo, they rule this city.
And now, you’ve drawn attention to yourself.
Maybe an anonymous call to the police would have been safer? ”
I snort. “A call might’ve started a months-long investigation, if they even took it seriously.
This way, I gave them everything on a silver platter.
All they had to do was pick it up.” Then I glance at her, suddenly curious.
“I know Damiano is the boss, but what about Lucas and Matteo? They’re not just hired muscle, are they? ”
She hesitates, glancing toward the living room. “Lucas is Dark’s second. And Matteo…” She lowers her voice even more. “He’s the enforcer.”
My breath catches in my throat.
Shit, they are big fish. Very big fish . I swallow hard.
“And what about all the cyber stuff?” I ask. “Does he have a highly skilled cyber team under his command or something like that?”
Hesitation flickers briefly in her eyes.
“Lily, I’m sorry to put you in this position. I know this might feel like a loyalty test, but that’s not what this is. I need to understand what I’m dealing with. You know I’d never do anything that could hurt you, directly or indirectly.”
She exhales slowly. “I know. And I trust you.” She pauses, clearly weighing her words. “It’s…hard to explain. Matteo doesn’t have a cyber team to speak of. He is the team. He’s not just the enforcer, he’s the one they call the Hunter.”
The name sends a shiver down my spine.
“He’s got this gift,” she continues, “with tech, for tracking and that kind of thing. It’s like what you do, but darker. If someone needs to be found, Matteo finds them. He was the one tracking me down when I came to stay with you.”
My stomach knots.
Lily goes on. “I heard them mention a ghost a few times, someone who helped when they were hitting walls. I never suspected it was you. But now…it kind of makes sense.”
My mind is reeling as realization hits me like a sledgehammer.
It’s him! The Gatekeeper.
The man behind the wall. The very wall I slipped past, that one time, when Lily was taken.
I needed access to their surveillance cameras’ feeds to follow a hunch, and that hunch turned out to be right.
Back then, I didn’t care who I was hacking, only that the network I infiltrated was impressively tight.
It took everything I had not to leave a trail behind.
I remember how fast the defenses kicked back in.
Someone on the other side had been good, very good even, because after that I couldn’t sneak back in.
They slammed the door shut and there was no way I could break through without tripping their alarms.
And now the man behind this defense is out there, sitting in a garden chair, sipping whiskey without a care.
Matteo.
I mistakenly thought he was nothing more than one of Damiano’s guns on a payroll. I never imagined this.
He is the one behind the digital walls.
My heart beats too loud, too fast.
He doesn’t know it was me, he can never find out. But I’m no longer just worried.I’m curious too.How many layers is he hiding beneath all that silence and brooding? Tonight, I need answers, and I’m going to peel him open, one secret at a time.